Mr. E. L. Layard on the Ornithology of Ceylon. 61 



to their arm-pits, and for the last two miles I had trudged along 

 over the remains of paddy-fields, now dry and dusty, under the 

 burning sun, without a tree or a bush to shelter me ; my dogs 

 trailed their tails and drooped their heads, with straining eyes 

 and outstretched tongues, and even the ordinarily garrulous 

 natives were silent, oppressed by the intolerable heat ; the 

 mirage deluded us with its pictures of limpid water and tall 

 trees, my spirits almost sank, and I thought I never should reach 

 the trees before us in the distance. How willingly would I, had 

 I been a litigant for that miserable tope, have resigned it, 

 rather than have taken the trouble to walk to it ! Suddenly — the 

 first living thing I had seen for hours — a pigeon darted past us 

 in full flight towards the tope ; I hardly cared to look at it with 

 my half-closed aching eyes, but its pink-coloured back and small 

 size at once roused me — it was something new ! 0, how eagerly 

 I watched its flight to that now coveted tope, and longed to be 

 there ! The natives knew of no other species but the " Cally and 

 Maiii-praas," and stoutly maintained there were none ; I was 

 equally positive the bird that flew by was neither of them, and 

 hurried forward, thirst and heat were alike forgotten ; and when 

 I reached the spot, instead of partaking of the cocoa-nuts which 

 the head-man's forethought had provided there for me, I sprang 

 on the low w r all and peered eagerly among the trees. Turtur 

 Suratensis and T. riso?-ius perched about the branches in abun- 

 dance, and — could I believe my eyes ? — on a dry leafless " matty" 

 projecting from a palmirah tree, and supporting the twigs of a 

 nest, sat a pair of the lovely little T. himilis ; there they were, 

 " billing and cooing," in sweet but dangerous proximity, for the 

 same shot laid them both dead at my feet, and in another minute 

 a native lad who had followed me brought down two shining, 

 smooth, white eggs from their nest. This was not the only pair 

 in the tope, and I soon procured half a dozen specimens, and 

 might have killed as many more. An old head-man who was with 

 me, and who had the reputation of being the best sportsman in 

 my district, assured me he had neither seen nor heard of this 

 description of pigeon before; and so said all present, some of 

 them old men who had spent their lives in that neighbourhood. 

 I had lived more than a year in the district and killed dozens of 

 doves without finding one, nor did I ever after, though I often shot 

 along the cultivation, at the edge of the plain, meet with them. 

 Had they bred there that year only ? where did they come from ? 

 why did they select that lonely tope and keep so closely to it ? I 

 left the district and never could learn, nor did I ever find any 

 native who had met with them in other parts of the island. 

 Dr. Kelaart knew nothing of it, and only included it in his list 

 on Mr. Elyth's authority, and I furnished the latter with data ; 



